Turkey updates its KBA and IBA inventories

Earlier this month, Doga, BirdLife Turkey, initiated the process of updating the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) and Important Bird Area (IBA) inventories of Turkey. The new KBA and IBA programmes of Doga are launched at two consecutive workshops in Ankara.

First of these workshops is organized in partnership with Underwater Research Society on March 2, where 50 national experts working on KBA conservation and on different taxon group came together to design the national strategy for updating the KBA directory of Turkey, initially published more than a decade before, in 2006. A national coordination group and associated taxon group committees, including plants, mammals, freshwater fish, herpetofauna, insects and marine, are to be formed following this workshop.

Second workshop was supported by the Champions of the Flyway project and concentrated on monitoring of IBAs, with an aim of conserving migratory birds at key areas. 70 birdwatchers and local conservationists from all seven geographic regions and 20 provinces of Turkey attended the workshop sharing valuable up to date information on key bird populations, threats and conservation responses at IBAs. The participants established the informative basis for long-term monitoring of IBAs and updating the national inventory, lastly published in 2004. The new IBA monitoring programme will be established at an online platform and data on key bird populations will be updated through this system. The new KBA and IBA online inventories are to be launched by 2019, and will regularly be updated afterwards.

Dicle Tuba Kilic, General Coordinator of Doga stated that: “Doğa recognizes IBAs and KBAs as a core element of its strategy since it is established. The 2004 and 2006 IBA and KBA inventories of Doga significantly advanced the on the ground conservation of these areas, via resulting in establishment of new protected areas and supporting local conservation groups to undertake evidence-based advocacy to save these areas. IBAs and KBAs also helped the wider conservation community to better understand the connections between biodiversity and indigenous production landscapes offering a shared agenda for conservation and sustenance of rural cultures. The new IBA and KBA monitoring programmes of Doga will be an online system through which the conservationists will be able to learn and share up to date information on status of these key areas and migratory birds. The new IBA and IBA directories of Turkey will be released as an output of this process by 2019. We are grateful to the supporters of Champions of the Flyway for enabling the IBA monitoring workshop earlier this month, where we were able to launch this very exiting process with the outstanding contributions of 70 birdwatchers and conservationists coming from all regions of Turkey.”